Thawte Shuts Down Free Email Certificates

Thawte announced that they will no longer be offering free email certificates. Their Frequently Asked Questions for the EOL of WOT page describes the reasoning:

Why have you stopped offering thawte Personal Email Certificates?

Over the past several years, security compliance requirements have become more restrictive, while the technology infrastructure necessary to meet these requirements has expanded greatly. Despite our strong desire to continue providing the Thawte Personal E-mail Certificate and Web of Trust services, the ever-expanding standards and technology requirements will outpace our ability to maintain these services at the high level of quality we require. As a result, Thawte Personal E-Mail Certificates and the Web of Trust will be discontinued on November 16, 2009 and will no longer be available after that date.

Thawte has stopped issuing email certificates and after November 16, it will revoke any active email certificates. Thawte is offering a free Symantec email certificate for all those who have a current Thawte email certificate.

If you are looking for another provider be sure to check out our list of providers who offer Email Certificates.

Originally posted on Tue Sep 29, 2009